After making hypothetical wishes for 2017 in a local paper, co-chair of the Trump New York state presidential campaign denied that his comments toward the Obamas were racially malicious.

Former 2010 New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino said that First Lady Michelle Obama should return to Africa and that he hoped President Barack Obama would catch mad cow disease.

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he told the Buffalo, New York, newspaper Artvoice.

His comments appeared in a Dec. 23 article where the 70-year-old politician and entrepreneur was asked what he wished for in the new year. While other featured New York artists and influencers remained relatively uncontroversial, Paladino took the opportunity to bash the Obamas.

The first thing he wished for was that “[Barack] Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Her[e]ford.” Then, Paladino continued with his graphic wishlist, adding that the president should die from the disease and be buried with adviser Valerie Jarrett “who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady [sic] cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.”

After the subsequent backlash from social media, Paladino wrote a letter over the Christmas weekend in response, claiming his statements had nothing to do with race. But Governor Andrew Cuomo did not see it that way. He condemned Paladino’s comments as “racist, ugly, reprehensible remarks about the president and First Lady.”

The top Trump aide did not write the letter to apologize. Instead, Paladino wrote it to take another swipe at the Obamas and the media for the backlash.

“That’s the typical stance of the press when they can’t otherwise defend the acts of the person being attacked,” he wrote, all the while accusing the First Lady of having hated America since 2008. “She then enjoyed all the attention, the multimillion-dollar vacations.”

However, the Trump aide still did not back down. He told the Buffalo News that he said those comments Friday, Dec. 23 ,and that he has no issue defending them.

“Of course I did,” he said Friday morning. “Tell them all to go f–k themselves.”